Latter Earth
by BlankBass
Summary: This story is not based on the Enders Game series, but is a lot like it! A story that takes place far in the future when Earth has been scarred by humans. However, the only enemy here is human kind itself. As time carried on, war among nations has ceas


Chapter 1

"Watch your back, boys," Blank's voice sounded over the headset in Shard's helmet, "We won't know if they're aware of our presence until it's too late anyway." Blank signaled for his three squad members to follow as he turned the corner of the hallway. Shard held up the back and continuously turned around to make sure they weren't being followed. The silence was eerie and wasn't disturbed by anything but the hum of machinery at work in the walls of the building they were in. Their footsteps were not even noticeable, which was as should be. This was stealth they were working with, not a full frontal assault.

Syi, who was next in line behind Blank, carried a pack on his back and a plasma rifle in his hands. Although his choice of weapon was weak, his task was not to attack, only to defend himself and access the computer to shut off all power. Even though this was not his usual job, he was content to take it, if it meant they would be rescuing their old sniper/hacker. He and Gill had known each other longer than anyone else had known anyone in the squad, so it was also another bonus to get his friend back.

Behind Syi was Wrico. Wrico, like always, had been quiet the entire time, and was proceeding to keep that habit going. As good as he was at his job, Wrico wasn't always the friendliest of people. That is, if you took him the wrong way. Wrico just didn't like talking, and that was how he reacted to everything. By not talking.

Wrico passed up Blank and Syi carefully to take the lead. Having a guy as big as him leading the group was rather intimidating, causing any foes to hesitate longer, giving them more time to act. As they approached an intersecting hallway, Wrico rolled a smoke grenade in their path far enough ahead to give it time to eliminate any unaided vision. Although no one had yet reached the cloud of smoke, rounds from several assault rifles were blaring through the halls.

Bullets began ricocheting off the walls and ceiling towards Blank and his group. Blank threw himself into the cloud so he was where he guess was in the center of the two halls while turning on his infrared scanner and pulled the trigger on his rifle as the cross-hairs centered on a soldier crouched down less than two feet from him. His shot was not heard above the others being fired, but he knew he had hit his target when the body jerked back and slumped down, leaving a spatter and streak of blood on the wall behind it. Blank reached up to his visor and wiped off the blood that had sprayed onto it, impairing his vision and took aim at another soldier positioned farther down the hallway to their left.

Syi hooked his plasma rifle to a strap across his shoulder and slung it on his back. The light it would produce would be distracting for anyone using infrared at the time. From it's holster on his right hip, Syi drew his pistol and flattened himself against the wall. He wasn't to be part of the fighting unless it came to him, even though it bored him to death.

And from the back, Shard knelt down against the wall to make himself a smaller target, but faced the direction they were coming from. As the screaming, shouting, and gunshots began to fade, he stood up, preparing to move on. Before he finished turning around, something caught his eye. He looked back down the hall and started shaking his head.

"Blank, they've got Cybs!" Shard mouthed, allowing the receiver in his mouthpiece to create an encrypted voice and send it to his three comrades. "We gotta get the hell outta here!"

"No," Blank responded calmly. "We're close enough we'd be just as safe to continue. You and Syi go ahead." Blank stripped off a bar of strangely shaped metal from the armor on his arm and placed it on the floor. After he pressed down a small red button that had been underneath the newly removed piece, a blue light bent out of the device on the floor creating a colored shield that curved outward and up a little, but was only large enough for one person to hide behind, lest the other stand behind the first.

As the Cyborgs closed the distance between Blank and Wrico and themselves, Wrico set his minigun against his shoulder and fed a new hopper into it. Blank threw his rifle over his shoulder and pulled a shining silver blade from a sheathe across his back before the firearm had swung on top of it. Gripping the hilt in both hands tightly, he looked over at Wrico.

"When I disable the shield," he whispered into the mic, "fire to the left of me, and I'll run to the right side of the hall." Wrico nodded and tensed his whole body. Blank kicked the base of the shield in front of them and the blue orb-like wall dissapeared. A wave of bullets flew by on Blank's right, ripping holes through the metallic exoskeleton on the Cybs, sending scraps of metal shavings in different directions as he ran forward. As the nearest Cyb took aim, Blank slid down onto his hip and into the Cyb's legs and swung his blade at the torso of it. Without a sound, the blade slid through the metal body, flinging blackened oil on the floor behind. The upper body slid off the lower end and hit the ground, flailing. Blank jumped up casually and looked at the other Cyborgs staring at him.

Meanwhile, Syi ran to keep up with Shard who was sprinting to gain as much headway as he could. He looked down for a minute at his feet, surprised at how fast he was moving, and when he looked up, nearly ran into Shard. He slid to a stop and stepped up to the door in front of them. Shard knelt down again and faced down the opposite direction of their dead end. Syi pulled a small device from its place on his belt and pressed down a switch on it, creating a beam of red light from one end. He aimed the light at the side of the lock and moved it downwards as it cut through the plating. After cutting a complete square out of the wall, he pulled off the plate and let it hang from the wires. He pulled a some long thick wires from his pack and plugged them into the back of the plate before unplugging some of the originals.

After working with the lock for some time, he ran his decoder and gave Shard a thumbs up when the door light turned green, letting them know it was open. Syi put his tools away and walked into the cell.

On a cot in the corner, a shrunken, sad looking man looked up from sunken eyes at the guests.

"Gill," Shard said, pulling off his helmet, "Get your ass up and let's get out of here!"


End file.
